Pre-Lottery Team Previews: Charlotte Bobcats

2012-13 Season Review

The Charlotte Bobcats were legendarily bad this year. Again. After starting a surprisingly competent 7-5, they swooned hard and will end up winning around 20 games for the whole season. According to ESPN's "Hollinger Team Statistics", they are going to finish dead last (or within the margin of error of dead last) in both offensive, defensive efficiency, and rebounding. 

Team Strengths

Kemba Walker's sophomore improvement got buried a bit by the team's overall terribleness. He is a tough lead guard who is active attacking the hoop. He doesn't draw enough fouls and he doesn't shoot well from outside, but he improved 5 points on his embarassing rookie year TS% (46.4 to a still barely acceptable  51.3). At 22, he should get better in these areas and is an above average defender by today's PG standards.

Michael Kidd Gilchrist, last year's #2 overall pick, still has great potential despite and up and down rookie year. His PER of 14 (slightly below average) is acceptable given that he is already an elite defensive player. 

Team Weaknesses

With no scoring presence inside nor anyone to protect the rim, the Bobcats constantly lose the battle for easy baskets. Also, they are a terrible 3-point shooting team. Also they give up more made threes than anyone else per game. In a typical Bobcats game, the opponent makes about 3 more threes than they do. It's an awful mess out there.

If they win the lottery...

...Charlotte would almost certainly select Nerlens Noel with the #1 overall pick should they land it. They don't mind if he has to sit out his rookie season while they stink it up for next year's loaded lottery.

If they don't win the lottery...

... they will still have a pick no worse than 4th overall. Assuming Noel is off the board, that means they'll have to narrow it down to three guys.

Ben McLemore would be a nice option for the Bobcats; he would instantly be the team's most dangerous perimeter shooting option. One gets the sense that Kemba isn't an unwilling passer, just that he's never had anyone to pass to (including at UConn). Offensively, these two could make a nice pair.

Anthony Bennett would be the team's best big man, especially offensively. A little two-man game with Walker and Bennett could be effective.

Victor Oladipo fits in with the culture the Bobcats are apparently trying to build: super hardworking, competitive, high character players with elite athleticism. He's not the shooter or scorer that McLemore is, but Oladipo and MKG defending on the wings would be terrifying for opponents. Without anyone to defend the paint, they'd still give up a ton of points, but they may be able to play a manic uptempo game keyed by excessive ball-pressure on defense.